A NEAR year-long police investigation into the £1 sale of the former Ravenscraig Hospital to a private company set to receive £15m of public money for building social housing on the polluted site has found 'no evidence of criminality'.
Police Scotland's Economic Crime Unit concluded the probe into a so-called back-to-back transaction involving developer Link Group Ltd, the Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde earlier this week, the Telegraph can reveal.
Detectives from Paisley CID launched the criminal investigation in March last year and it was subsequently passed to the specialist economic crime officers two months later.
Police Scotland issued three public statements during the course of the investigation, including that information had been passed them regarding the Ravenscraig land with enquiries at an early stage, and that enquiries were ongoing.
The third and final statement, issued to the Telegraph on Tuesday, said: "Officers have concluded investigations into allegations made over the sale of land at the Ravenscraig site in Greenock and no evidence of criminality has been found."
Ravenscraig Housing Development.
We told in 2018 how health chiefs sold Ravenscraig Hospital, and its sprawling 83-acre grounds, to Link after placing the historic listed building on the open market — but not its associated land.
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde was officially seeking a private buyer for the hospital buildings whilst engaging in discussions to have the entire site offloaded to registered social landlord Link — via the Scottish Government's More Homes division.
The government consistently said throughout the timeframe of the police investigation that the land transfer had been 'conducted in accordance with all due process'.
Link Group yesterday issued a statement following the conclusion of the investigation.
A spokesman for the company said: "After supporting Police Scotland with their assessment, we are pleased to hear no criminality has been found — an outcome we had confidence in throughout.
"Like all our developments, we have followed robust, transparent and regulated processes at Ravenscraig and this outcome supports this.
"We look forward to to continuing the development and bringing these safe, affordable homes to the community."
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